It is conventional to use beryllium-copper and phosphorus-copper alloys as base materials for electrical contacts. Such alloys make for reliable contacts and exhibit excellent ductility and strength. Satisfactory use, however, comes at a price. Copper has poor corrosion resistance and tends to diffuse into other elements at a high rate, thus these conventional alloys are sequentially plated with a thick barrier layer and a thick gold layer causing an inherent expense. Nickel is most often used as a barrier layer. Other base materials may be used. Spring steel and alloys such as nickel/silver have proved unsatisfactory due to problems relating to corrosion, tensile strength, formability, and cost.
It is also known to use palladium nickel alloys. They exhibit better properties than pure palladium, but such alloys contain more than 60% by weight of palladium, which, while certainly less costly than gold, represents a great expense.